Wolf at Your Door
by Luna Darkside
Summary: Kaito is a bitter werewolf who's determined to avenge his father's murder. Shinichi is a tormented vampire who's looking for Pandora. Their goals become very different once their paths cross. /vampire!Shinichi x werewolf!Kaito, oneshot, complete/


_Lately, I've been feeling like my fics have been getting formulaic (they're in love + mutual pining and miscommunication + kiss at the end = the majority of my recent fics), so I decided to change it up with an angst-ridden werewolf/vampire AU. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and then I wrote it and immediately remembered why I don't write anything but fluff and sap, but. Well. I thought I should still post this anyway._

 _Warnings include shounen-ai, grammar mistakes/errors, plot holes galore, somewhat open ending, angsty werewolf!Kaito, a somewhat darker-than-canon vampire!Shinichi, some blood and violence and a hopefully not too gross descriptions of sunburn, etc. Title from Phildel's "The Wolf" for somewhat obvious reasons._

 _Hope you enjoy. – Luna_

 **Wolf at Your Door**

By general werewolf standards, Kaito was a terrible werewolf.

He didn't have a pack. (Or, at least, he hadn't had one since the death of his father, who had been his pack's alpha.) He didn't live in a were-sanctioned area, preferring instead to occupy his childhood home – a small, one-story house tucked between a park and a convenience store in a corner of Ekoda. He had gone to public high school rather than a private, were-run institution, and he didn't work for the International Foundation of Were Protection or the Were Guard or any other were agency, as most weres generally did after graduation. He didn't even interact with many other werewolves except his mother, who had taken up with a pack in Nagoya; Aoko, a childhood friend with whom he'd been close until the dissolution of the pack; and her boyfriend Hakuba, a high-ranking officer of the IFWP who had transferred to Tokyo's division from the London headquarters.

But most importantly, Kaito was most likely the only werewolf who willingly ingested wolfsbane.

It wasn't that he _liked_ to take it, Kaito reasoned. The wolfsbane was so sickeningly bitter that taste alone was enough to discourage its consumption, but more importantly, it _hurt_. It had a way of burning through the veins like a shot of cyanide, a way of making every breath feel like an inhale of carbon monoxide, a way of wrapping around the limbs and _constricting_ until death seemed a kinder, easier option. Worst of all, one could _feel_ a part of themselves slowly dying, their inner wolf choked and chained until the effects wore off.

No, Kaito didn't like to take wolfsbane. But it was the only option.

The moon was a bald, gleaming pearl against the smooth silk of the sky, hanging heavy and full between the wisps of cloud and smatterings of old, fading stars. Kaito inhaled deeply, feeling his wolf – or what he could sense of it, bound with wolfsbane as it was – reaching desperately for the moon, demanding to be released.

He ignored it as best as he could and continued through the forest. He couldn't afford to give in to his wolf, not if he was trying to find Snake and his men. Snake and his men, the _hunters_ , who liked to roam this stretch of the woods during the full moon, armed with silver bullets and chains and wolfsbane, ready to hunt down and _torture_ the weres they could find for nothing more than sport – werewolves like Kaito's father, Kaito thought bitterly, werewolves who had done _nothing_ wrong – he would _never_ forgive Snake for what he'd done –

Perhaps he hadn't taken enough wolfsbane to ward off the effects of the full moon's distracting, whispering enticements, because Kaito was so preoccupied, so absent and unfocused in his own mind, that he almost missed the sound of a branch snapping underfoot several meters away, despite his superior hearing and reflexes.

Kaito reacted a second too slow, backtracking so quickly he almost tripped over a log. His mind whirled, and for a moment he thought it was Snake, standing there with a hunting rifle and a manic grin, but then he paused, scenting the air. Snake, for all his cruelty and heartlessness, was one hundred percent human, not a drop of were or other magic in his (cold) blood. The person standing so _still_ in the clearing, silhouetted against the shadowy backdrop of ghostly, half-bare trees, smelled unlike any human – or werewolf – Kaito had ever encountered.

Before Kaito could react, the figure approached at a speed so fast that if Kaito had not had advanced vision, he would have been unable to follow the motion. As it was, Kaito barely had enough time to take a step back as the person came to a graceful, sudden stop.

The person, at first glance, looked entirely average. Well – not entirely, because he was far too attractive to be considered average, with his long eyelashes and razorblade cheekbones and ethereal, too-azure eyes, but he at least looked like someone whose genetic makeup was free of supernatural DNA.

At second glance, though, he told a different story. Kaito could pick up the paleness of his skin (delicate, paper thin, near-translucent, but too unblemished, completely free of the greens and blues of veins), his slender wrists and elegant hands (long-fingered and artistic save for the startling, savagely pointed tips of his nails), and the slightest hints of bright white teeth protruding along the pink curve of his plush bottom lip. It was obvious within half a heartbeat what the man really was.

"Vampire," Kaito breathed. His wolf howled in horrified, scandalized protest from inside its cage.

The vampire smiled. The smile was not unkind at all, which Kaito found surprising, considering all he'd heard about "those damn bloodsuckers" from Hakuba. "I go by Kudou Shinichi these days, but essentially, yes."

"What do you want from me?" The moment he spoke those words, Kaito flinched, knowing he must have sounded impertinent, which was not a good way to sound when under the influence of wolfsbane and facing a vampire who was clearly at his strongest. He swallowed.

The vampire – Shinichi – tipped his head at him. The moonlight gleamed off his irises, making them glow and dance like blue embers. Kaito wondered if their bright color was due to his vampirism or simply genetics. "You've been trying to track down Snake and his hunters, haven't you? That's why you take wolfsbane and come out on the full moon, because you know they're usually out looking for shifted werewolves."

Kaito froze. He hadn't told anyone, not Aoko or Hakuba or his mother, about how he spent his full moons or his use of wolfsbane, knowing that they would only try to stop him. Nobody knew. Nobody was supposed to know.

"I have," he answered slowly, narrowing his eyes as his lips began to slide away from his teeth. "How do you know that?"

"Well," Shinichi said, running a hand through the dark satin of his hair, "would it be terribly forward of me to say that I've been watching you?"

"Terribly _creepy_ ," Kaito mumbled, remembering vampires' heightened senses a second too late. He flinched. It was no time to be riling up a _vampire_.

Strangely enough, Shinichi didn't seem to mind as he laughed – _laughed_. His canines were wickedly sharp, tapering elegantly into long, almost delicate points. Kaito felt unease drop heavily into the pit of his stomach at the sight. "That too, I suppose." He made a quiet, questioning sound. "Are you aware of what Snake and his hunters are currently searching for?"

"What?" Kaito frowned at him, bewildered. "They're after something?" _Other than senseless murder_ , he added bitterly.

"Oh, you didn't know?" Shinichi 's eyes widened fractionally, the slant of his mouth genuinely surprised. It was odd, Kaito thought, to see such a vulnerable, human emotion on the face of someone who was likely centuries old. "I assumed you were chasing Snake and his men because they're currently searching for Pandora."

When Kaito's face registered nothing but mystification, Shinichi eyed him appraisingly. Kaito tried not to cower under the intensity of his gaze. He felt not unlike an amoeba beneath the lens of a microscope, exposed and defenseless. "If you're not trying to prevent them from finding Pandora, why do you do it?" he asked, sounding genuinely curious. "You're putting yourself in so much pain just to track them. Why is that?"

The question, innocuous as it was, made Kaito's jaw clench and something ugly and dark billow in the cavern of his chest. "They killed my father when I was a kid," he answered gruffly. "Shot him straight through the heart with a silver bullet on the full moon. But not until after they'd chained him up and injected him with wolfsbane." His hands tightened into fists at his sides. "I only found out recently about what happened." He thought briefly of his mother watching him from across the kitchen table, waiting for his reaction and blotting tears from her eyes as she told him about the state she'd found his father's body in, the hunters she'd seen leaving the woods the next morning discussing their hunt.

Understanding flooded Shinichi's face. His eyes almost looked sorrowful, gemlike and crystalline as they were. "I see." He paused, scrutinizing Kaito's face once again. "Your father was Kuroba Toichi, then?"

Nothing could have prepared Kaito for that. There was _no way_ – how could a _vampire_ know who his father was? He felt his mouth drop open and his stomach turn. "How did you know –?"

"I have my sources," Shinichi answered gently. "I mentioned that Snake is after Pandora earlier, didn't I? I'm also in pursuit of Pandora, though for very different reasons."

"You keep mentioning Pandora," Kaito snapped, feeling out of sorts and desperate. He took a half-step forward. "What does that have to do with my father? _Does_ it have anything to do with him?"

"It has quite a lot to do with your father," Shinichi informed him. "He was the last official keeper of Pandora before he died and it disappeared."

* * *

After that, Kaito demanded answers and Shinichi proved happy to give them, but he refused to do so in the middle of the woods. Kaito had acquiesced reluctantly, allowing himself to be ushered out from the towering trees and shepherded to a restaurant that was open 24/7. The surly, half-asleep waitress leaning against the sad-looking cake display snapped to attention at the sight of Shinichi and his magnificent cheekbones, hurrying to give the two of them menus after seating them in one corner of the otherwise restaurant.

"It's a bit late for dinner, don't you think?" Shinichi remarked conversationally, shutting his menu. Kaito did the same. He definitely wasn't hungry – not for food, at least.

Shinichi waved the waitress over – she looked only too excited to obey – and ordered two cups of coffee. "Sorry we're not very good business," he apologized, regretful, and the waitress swooned faintly before locating a coffeepot and two cups.

Once she had left to slump against the kitchen counter and admire Shinichi's profile from a distance, Shinichi set about fixing his coffee, thumbing through the little ceramic box of calorie-free sweetener packets with distaste until he located the plain sugar. He removed the black leather gloves he wore and added exactly one sugar before Kaito, going out of his mind with questions, finally asked, "Are you going to explain anything?"

Setting down the empty packet, Shinichi folded his hands neatly in front of him. Had he not still looked like a model in every way, Kaito would've laughed at the strangely schoolboy-esque picture he presented. "Let me start from the beginning, shall I?"

"Generally, that's a good place to start," Kaito muttered. Shinichi gave him an indulgent smile.

"Pandora is a dangerous jewel," he started. "There are people who believe if you perform a certain ritual with it, it can grant immortal life."

Kaito's eyes widened. None of the known supernatural beings lived indefinitely. Vampires could live for centuries, possibly even millennium, but they did eventually die, and while witches could create life-lengthening spells and potions, there was a point at which their bodies became too frail to accept the magic. Everlasting life – that was something else. "Does it really?"

"No," Shinichi answered decisively. When Kaito raised his eyebrows inquiringly, he elaborated, "It turns you into an undead demon. While I suppose that you technically won't die, you're not exactly sane enough to enjoy it."

"Oh," Kaito said in a small voice.

"When Pandora was first discovered, nobody knew about it could do. It was passed down through the emperor's bloodline as an heirloom until someone performed the ritual with it and was turned into a demon. At that point, it was deemed dangerous and given to a certain upstanding werewolf pack to protect. Your ancestral pack, Kuroba Kaito." Shinichi took a sip of his coffee. He set the cup back down with such careful control that it barely made a sound against the saucer. "Your father, when he was the alpha of your pack, hid it somewhere, as every alpha before him had. Nobody else knew where it was. But Snake and his men – I assume they don't know about the whole undead demon bit and are after immortality – heard about your father protecting Pandora and, ah, tried to get its location out of him. As you know, they targeted him on the full moon, when his wolf would be in control and he would be more vulnerable."

"You're saying they – they killed him when he wouldn't tell them where the stupid jewel was. And they're still looking for it now," Kaito mumbled. He felt something like rage simmering in his stomach; his wolf was pacing its confines with ears flattened to its head and lips peeled away from its teeth. "All of this for eternal life."

"Some people – usually humans – find it a tempting offer. The thought of ageing and dying is too much to bear," Shinichi remarked mildly, draining his cup of coffee in a single draw. The sun was just beginning to appear over the horizon, the light it spilled groggy and faded behind a bank of gray clouds but enough to illuminate Shinichi's eyes to a terrifyingly bright azure. "But I can tell you that living long isn't a blessing."

The scrape of his chair against the floor was loud in the stillness as he stood. Kaito watched as Shinichi brushed off his elegant black pea coat (was anything about Shinichi _not_ elegant, Kaito wondered) and smiled at him, pulling his gloves on as he went. In the growing light, Shinichi's teeth seemed less threatening, more fascinating than anything.

"I know this was a lot to take in," he murmured, patting Kaito's shoulder lightly. "I'll be seeing you soon."

Kaito was left to stare after him as he strode out of the restaurant, only stopping to pay the waitress before he was out on the sidewalk, one gloved hand held up casually to block the sun from his face.

* * *

"When you said you'd be seeing me soon," Kaito commented, incredibly calm despite the situation, "this was not what I was expecting."

Shinichi, from where he was straddling Kaito's windowsill, frowned at him. The sunset behind him cast flecks of ochre and golden into his hair and made his eyes look like bonfires, a distinct difference from the usual pale blue tones Kaito had already come to associate with him. "What do you mean?" he asked as he clambered through and shut the window. He smelled strongly of sunscreen, like he'd upended an entire bottle of it over his head, which made Kaito grimace and wish he didn't have such a sensitive nose.

"You climbing through my window at six in the evening," he answered when Shinichi was done pulling Kaito's blinds closed. The room fell into dim, dusky light. "Why are you here? Don't we only need to meet before a full moon?" He realized, abruptly, that he'd just assumed he and Shinichi would work together to track Snake. Shinichi had never explicitly said that, had he?

"There are other things we need to talk about, although you can never plan too much," Shinichi explained, sitting down cautiously on the edge of Kaito's bed. He wasn't uncomfortable, not really, but he didn't exactly seem as at ease as he had seemed before. "I'd like to discuss Pandora's possible whereabouts as well. We should try to find it before Snake does."

Scowling, Kaito slanted his head at Shinichi. "How do I know I can trust _you_ with it? What are you trying to do with it?"

"Create an army of undead demons to help me take over the country," Shinichi replied, straight-faced. When Kaito blinked at him, mouth opening, he groaned. "First of all, that was a joke. Second of all, even if I made a lot of demons, it's not as if they'd even listen to me. They're kind of mindless." He sighed. "The only reason I want to know Pandora's location is so I can help you hide it in a different place. As it is, nobody knows where it is, which is dangerous enough. If someone were to accidentally stumble upon it without knowing, we could end up having an undead invasion. I'm here for the betterment of society."

"I still don't think I should just give it to you," Kaito admitted after a short pause. "After all, you're a vampire. We – werewolves – aren't supposed to trust you." His wolf growled in agreement – while it hadn't tried to overwhelm Kaito, force the shift, and attack Shinichi yet, it certainly didn't like him.

Shinichi arched a neat brow. His brows were so perfectly shaped that they looked as though he plucked them, but Kaito doubted he bothered with that. "That hasn't stopped you from trusting me in your house, though." He spread his hands wide, motioning at Kaito's room at large. "Okay, fine. For now, let's not talk about Pandora and Snake and all of that. We can forget the vampire-were tensions and just be friends."

Even though he sounded sarcastic, there was a note of genuine hope underneath it. Kaito couldn't help but smile a little. He'd never met a vampire before Shinichi, but he had a feeling most of them weren't like him. "A centuries-old vampire wants to be friends with me. Wow, I'm honored."

"Excuse you, I'm only, like, eight decades old," Shinichi scolded, mock-affronted, and rose to sweep smoothly out of the room and into the hallway. He glanced back over his shoulder to ask, "Have you got any blood around here, by the way? I'm starving."

Kaito, who had been trailing after him with something like confusion, blanched. He'd almost forgotten about the whole – blood thing. "Um, no." Shinichi looked disproportionately amused at this.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to try to feed off of you," he called. "You werewolves taste awful. Like charcoal. Sort of dusty." He shrugged. "I mean, I could probably survive off your blood if it really came to it, but I'd really rather not."

"How flattering," Kaito grumbled, shouldering past Shinichi to enter the kitchen. He flicked on the lights, the countertops gleaming in the fluorescence. "I'm going to eat some actual food. You can go…" He stopped abruptly, realizing he had no idea just how Shinichi fed. What if he just – attacked people? The thought made discomfort land solidly in his stomach.

"If you're worried I'm going to run out, grab the nearest civilian, and drain them in the middle of the sidewalk, I'll have to admit I'm a little offended," Shinichi remarked from behind him. When Kaito turned to look at him, he was watching Kaito with a smirk, propped up against the doorframe with the ease of a runway model. "Grab me the phone."

It turned out that Shinichi had strange connections with some kind of – biochemist? Kaito wasn't entirely sure, but the end result was a tall blonde girl showing up on Kaito's doorstep with a giant thermos of blood ("synthetic blood," Shinichi assured him) in one hand and a frown on her pretty face. Kaito couldn't tell if she was a vampire, but she certainly looked terrifying enough to be one.

"What are you doing all the way out in Ekoda? I hope you know I'm not your personal blood-delivering service," she demanded, glaring around Shinichi to look at Kaito with interest, but Shinichi took the thermos from her hand and ushered her out briskly. She gave him a look that probably could've killed an entire zoo of animals, but Shinichi seemed unabashed as he shut the door in her face.

"Sorry about Miyano," he told Kaito apologetically as he took a long drink from the thermos. His mouth came away wetly red. Kaito's stomach roiled in disgust, but he ignored it. "She's a faerie, in case you were wondering."

"A faerie." Kaito blinked. "A _faerie_. _She_ is." He thought of the iceblock stare she'd leveled at him and raised an eyebrow. "Aren't faeries supposed to be – I don't know, warm? With golden auras and wings and all that?"

Swallowing, Shinichi shrugged. "Technically, she's half-faerie, half-human, so that may explain it." He drained the thermos, wiping at his mouth once he was finished. His hand came away rusty red and glistening. Shinichi scowled at it before returning his attention to Kaito. "She's quite the biochemistry prodigy, though. I'm lucky she was willing to figure out a way of making the blood." He turned, heading back to the kitchen. "I don't know what I'd do without her. I don't like taking fresh blood. It makes me feel – sick."

The somber slope to his words made Kaito frown as he followed Shinichi into the kitchen. As far as he knew, vampires _only_ drank human blood. This was the first time he'd ever heard of a vampire drinking _synthetic_ blood.

Shinichi was an anomaly, Kaito realized suddenly, just as Kaito was. The thought was strangely emboldening – comforting, almost, and he let it carry him through a night of Shinichi incredulously watching him cook ("Is this going to end in a grease fire?"), being legitimately surprised when Kaito's omurice turned out well ("You're a single bachelor living alone! How was I supposed to know you knew how to cook?"), and then forcing him into a game of Clue ("How do you _not_ like murder mysteries?").

It was – fun, maybe. Possibly. Kaito hesitated to use the word, because he he'd experienced a total of maybe six fun things since his father died, but – maybe this counted. Maybe spending a night in with a vampire who was practically a stranger and was only around to help prevent a demon apocalypse could be categorized as fun.

* * *

Kaito blinked and they were friends.

To be honest, Kaito didn't know how it happened. It wasn't as if they did regular friend bonding activities – they spent a good amount of time talking about possible places Kaito's father could have hidden Pandora (it had to be close, so he could protect it; it wasn't a safe, because that was too obvious; no, Kaito didn't remember his father going anywhere for extended periods of time) and discussing how they were going to find Snake at the upcoming full moon (Kaito suggested using himself as bait; Shinichi was strongly opposed, but couldn't come up with a better idea). They didn't go to the movie theater or out shopping or to amusement parks. They still didn't know everything about each other – Kaito was still in the dark about how Shinichi had been turned, Shinichi had never seen Kaito's full shift into wolf form.

But. _But_.

There was just _something_ about Shinichi, Kaito decided. Something that made him easy to talk to. He never felt as if he was overstepping some obscure societal boundary with Shinichi, even though he said some fairly blunt things that likely would've gotten him eviscerated in other places. And Shinichi, for all his quietly sarcastic comments and eye rolling, never seemed to mean any of the mocking things he said. Kaito never felt uncomfortable around Shinichi. They'd developed a kind of understanding – a kind of understanding that Kaito found strangely addictive. He came to anticipate every single crumb of correspondence he got from Shinichi on the days they didn't meet; he came to adore every reaction he could pull from Shinichi, to live for the moments where Shinichi smiled at him.

(It was maybe a problem, but Kaito saw no sense in dwelling on it.)

So it was no surprise that Kaito woke up one bitterly cold morning to his phone buzzing due to a text from Shinichi that read, _come over?_ , replied _sure xx_ , and was on the way to Shinichi's mansion after throwing on a sweater and jeans before he even thought about it.

Oh, Shinichi's mansion. The place in and of itself was an enigma. The place was huge, hulking, three stories of velvet draperies and gilded balustrades and antique paintings. But for all its glamour, it felt too empty, cold, sort of – desolate, almost, in a way that reminded Kaito of a coffin or a morgue or a cemetery. In Kaito's opinion, it didn't suit Shinichi, despite that Shinichi was similar to it in many ways – classy, elegant, with a hint of sadness behind his gorgeous whiplash smirk.

(Kaito kept that thought to himself, though. Both the bit about Shinichi seeming sad and the part about him being gorgeous. It wouldn't do for him to know about the slight infatuation Kaito had developed with him.)

Shinichi opened the door in tailored slacks and a button-down, hair styled and shirt pressed despite that it was eight in the morning. Kaito had wondered why Shinichi constantly looked like the subject of a photoshoot, but then he realized that Shinichi never needed to sleep and probably had time to color-coordinate his outfits.

"Hey, stranger," Shinichi greeted, stepping aside to allow Kaito in. Kaito had taken to categorizing that variant hues of Shinichi's eyes – he'd found that in different lightings, the azure took on different undertones. His favorite, so far, was the color they were in the moonlight, sort of lit up from the inside and luminous. Maybe it was just his moon-addled wolf talking, though. "I found some information I thought might be helpful."

"Really?" Kaito bent over to unlace his shoes, a draft assaulting his bare skin where his sweater slipped up. When he straightened, he noticed Shinichi pointedly looking at a photorealistic painting of a fruit bowl over Kaito's shoulder. "Kudou? Are you okay?"

"Fine," Shinichi nodded hurriedly and brushed past Kaito. As he walked down the lacquered wood hallway, he called over his shoulder, "I've done some more research on Pandora. The reason why it was given to a werewolf clan was because of its relationship with the moon, which is similar to weres and werewolves in particular. Pandora appears to be a normal gemstone until it is held to the light of a full moon, at which point a smaller jewel on the inside is revealed." He stopped in the doorway to the frankly daunting library to look at Kaito. "Do you own any sort of jewelry with a large gem on it?"

"I don't think my family owns any," Kaito answered slowly, trying to recall what sort of jewelry his mother owned. She generally wore pearls, if he was remembering correctly. Pearls, because they resembled the moon. He groaned. "Why are Snake and his people so fixated on eternal life, anyway?"

Kaito had asked this question multiple times, mostly rhetorically, and every time before, Shinichi had just given a thoughtful hum. It was what Kaito was expecting when he'd asked, but this time, Shinichi's eyes went sad and soft.

"Living long is certainly more of a curse than a blessing," he remarked, his voice pitched so low that Kaito, even with his heightened hearing, had to strain to comprehend. "There's more time to – to regret."

Startled, Kaito stood dumbly in the hallway, unable to take his eyes off of Shinichi. This was the first time Shinichi had mentioned his past, really – Kaito instinctively tried to stay away from the topic. But now – Shinichi's eyes were far away at sea, deep, murky blue, but he faced Kaito squarely, shoulders open and posture comfortable. An invitation, it seemed.

"What do you mean?" Kaito asked, as tactfully as he could.

Shinichi's chin lifted. He tilted his face farther towards Kaito, almost like a sunflower reaching for the sun. "I've done things I'm not proud of, Kuroba." His mouth thinned into a flat line. "My past – it's bloodstained. Every vampire's is. At the beginning, when you're first –" He made a hand motion that Kaito breathlessly interpreted as _turned_. "When you first wake up, it's – it's impossible _not_ to want to go out and get blood, however you want it. That's the only instinct you have. There's nothing except want. You want to just – just find the nearest person and drain them where they stand."

There was nothing Kaito could say, nothing he could do but watch Shinichi's eyes turn stormy and despairing. He could only stand there and listen.

"And I couldn't help myself. I couldn't _control_ myself." Shinichi's voice was a whisper. "It's so ironic, that I was turned into this. Do you know what I was before I was turned?" His laugh was bone dry. "A homicide detective. Murder was the cruelest thing in the world, to me. I was turned by a vampire I was trying to arrest for a serial killing. Instead, I turned into the killer. The universe really does have a sense of humor."

It was too much, hearing Shinichi talk like that as his voice wavered in and out of audibility and the shadows beneath his eyes lengthened. Kaito couldn't help himself as he took a step forward, reaching out with shaking arms to drag Shinichi into a hug. Shinichi's body was cool against the front of Kaito's sweater, and he didn't quite feel real, heartbeatless and unnaturally still as he was, but he did relax into Kaito's arms just a fraction before he gently pushed Kaito away.

"Don't feel bad for me," he said, trying for a smile as he ran a hand through his hair. "Everyone's got a sob story. Mine isn't any worse than yours."

And Kaito wanted to tell him _I may want Snake dead and I may not sleep at night and I may willingly harm myself to reach my goals, but I don't hate myself like you do, I don't hate a good person who didn't have a choice_. But he knew Shinichi wouldn't appreciate it – or at least he'd act as if he didn't – so he just shook his head at Shinichi and said, "If you say so."

The look of tormented relief on Shinichi's face made Kaito feel a lot of things, but it mostly made him want Shinichi a lot.

 _Okay_ , Kaito decided as he followed Shinichi into the library and realized he couldn't stop staring at the shape of Shinichi's face and the way his eyes looked in the dim, dull light, _okay, I may have a problem_.

* * *

Kaito's problem solving skills weren't exactly up to most emotionally grown people's standards, which was why he found himself shifting into his wolf form and going for a run to clear his mind in an attempt to work out what he was going to do about Shinichi – namely, Kaito's growing admiration/adoration/attraction to him.

He spent the first twenty minutes of his run nosing around the damp, musky blanket of crackling, dead leaves on the ground – it had rained earlier that day, leaving the forest floor slick with wet earth – and seeing how quickly he could navigate through the tightly knit clusters of trees. His wolf was elated, seeing as it had been a long, long time since Kaito had allowed it any semblance of control.

And Kaito had to admit that he had missed this, missed the feeling of wind ruffling his fur and his paws sticking in the mud as he trudged through the forest noiselessly. Even though he'd stopped allowing his wolf full control on the full moon, it was still as much a part of him as his anthro side was, and it was relieving to let it come to the surface a little.

After another few hours of padding aimlessly through the woods, Kaito came to a small clearing. Intent on taking a break, he stalked over to one shadowy edge of the clearing and lay down, curling his tail around his legs. A breeze ruffled the fur around his ears, and Kaito turned his face into one foreleg.

Objectively speaking, Shinichi was aesthetically pleasing, despite his distinctly dangerous fangs and bloodless skin and pointed nails. It had been the first thing Kaito noticed about him, and it still held true under inspection. But what Kaito found most mesmerizing was his intelligence and sarcasm and code of honor, the way he was easy to talk to and never judgmental. The way he'd opened up to Kaito, even though both of them knew he wasn't the most unguarded person. It made Kaito feel as though he were trusted into Shinichi's inner sanctum, and that – actually scared him a little, but no more than it thrilled him to be let in.

There was nothing for it. Kaito was enamored of Shinichi, and he didn't know what to do.

He didn't have much longer to think about it, because for the second time in the past few weeks, Kaito was caught off guard. Only this time, it wasn't by Kudou Shinichi sweeping beautifully out from the shadows. It was by a yell of triumph, coarse and male, and a sting of pain in his back leg that blossomed into a discomfort, then an ache, then pure agony. Kaito's first instinct was to howl and try to rise, but his leg went out underneath him and he collapsed back against the ground with a damp smack.

Thrashing in pain as darkness encroached on his vision, Kaito was vaguely aware of a tall, bearded man emerging from one corner of the clearing. "Look what I got!" he called, his voice rancorous over the scream of pain overtaking Kaito's mind. He was holding a hunting rifle, Kaito realized. A hunting rifle that was evidently loaded with silver bullets.

Rearing up, Kaito only made it a meter back into the woods before there was another gunshot and sharp, stabbing pain dug into his shoulder. He grunted this time, crumpling ungracefully in a heap beneath a towering oak.

"Hey, Snake, I got one! Don't know why he's out here during a half moon, but maybe he knows something, you think?" the man was calling. His footsteps crunched through the leaves, harsh and unforgiving. A moment later, he knelt to check on Kaito. His teeth were yellow and crooked where his chapped, peeling lips drew back in a sadistic smile. The rifle in his hands gleaming menacingly.

Kaito struggled, of course. He tried his hardest to move, to get away from the man and back into the woods and to safety, to home, but he physically _couldn't_ ; his brain was flooded with fear and the all-consuming horror of silver, and his limbs rebelled against him. He could do nothing but twitch weakly as the man planted a boot against his flank, grinding him down into the dirt.

The man's grin grew when Kaito only let out a weak, frustrated whine. Turning his face away, he yelled, more insistently this time, "Hey, Snake? C'mon, this could be good –"

He cut himself off abruptly. Kaito stared in bewilderment as the man's dark, beady eyes rolled back in his head and he staggered a few steps away, the weight of his foot alleviating as he went.

Lifting his head, Kaito forced his gaze to focus. Dark trees swam in the distance, the fading half-full moon winked in the sky – and Shinichi stood in the middle of the clearing.

It took a moment to recognize him. Not only was Kaito's vision blurring into a mess of stained glass, but Shinichi was – different. He didn't look sophisticated or beautiful or anything like how he looked in a pea coat and quirked lips, not like how he looked when he was raising his eyebrows at Kaito over a pristine first edition copy of _The Sign of Four_ with the sleeves of his oxford cuffed to the elbows.

No, he looked terrifying.

His eyes glowed red, redder than a blood moon and brighter than the sun. The tips of his fangs, usually just a suggestion along his bottom lip, extended past his chin, razor-sharp and riptide-dangerous. And his nails extended to claws – sleek, sharp claws that contrasted with the delicate, artistic quality of his hands.

But most of all, Shinichi was growling, snarling low and threatening and bone-chillingly angry at the hunter who was now lying on his back, paralyzed as he stared up at Shinichi. Kaito almost missed the blood that was spilling sluggishly from his side where Shinichi had – Kaito's eyes snapped to Shinichi's left hand, to the dark liquid that stained the tips of his fingers up to the second knuckle, looking surreally like wet paint.

Another hunter appeared just over Shinichi's shoulder, gun held aloft as he crept up on Shinichi. Kaito made a weak noise, trying to warn him, but Shinichi was an indistinct streak, halfway across the clearing before Kaito even summoned up the will to open his mouth. The second hunter dropped to the ground without any fanfare, hand loosening on his firearm as he went. Shinichi kicked it far out of his reach.

Kaito blinked and Shinichi was at his side, kneeling to carefully lift Kaito's head into his lap. His eyes were azure again, his fangs had disappeared, and the hand that soothed the ruffled fur around Kaito's jaw was clawless. Kaito whimpered softly, nuzzling into his touch.

"Are you all right? Can you turn back?" Shinichi asked, with gentleness that startled Kaito. Kaito could only manage a pained snuffle, motioning at the bits of silver still buried in his shoulder and leg. Shinichi's eyes flickered with understanding. "Right. The silver stops you from changing back."

From a distance, there was a shout of confusion. It sounded almost like Snake trying to find his men, from what Kaito could comprehend. Shinichi's face creased, and he abruptly hoisted Kaito upwards, wrapping an arm around Kaito's midsection and tugging him along as he began to stumble back into the woods. The action made pain spasm through Kaito and he made an undignified sobbing sound; Shinichi placed a hand against the spot behind his ear.

"I'm sorry, but we need to get out of here," he murmured. For a moment, his eyes flashed crimson. "I can't guarantee that I won't kill the next hunter I see."

Confused but aching, Kaito only grunted as Shinichi dragged him along for another few hours, navigating through the tangle of trees as slowly as Kaito's wounds demanded. Kaito was nearly comatose, unable to move and relying entirely on Shinichi's strength.

The woods were thinning out when Kaito realized the sun was rising, just beginning to peek out above the curve of the far-off horizon, and sunlight filtered lazily through the trees. He made a sound of absolute horror when he looked at Shinichi's face and found his cheek smoldering, burning visibly in the daylight. The scent of burning skin scalded the inside of Kaito's nose.

"It's fine," Shinichi got out from behind gritted teeth when he noticed Kaito's growing dismay. He tried to smile, but winced. The entire side of his neck was scorched red and breaking out in blisters. It looked so – Kaito whined, pawing at Shinichi's shoulder with what little remaining strength he had. Shinichi patted him on the head with one burnt hand. "Don't worry about me." He ignored Kaito's further complaints, instead staring straight forward and soldiering on even as his skin sizzled angrily.

Wishing desperately that he hadn't been so _stupid_ , wishing he had done something _more_ to prevent this, wishing he hadn't gone out in the woods alone like an absolute _idiot_ , Kaito forced himself to watch as Shinichi's breathing became more and more labored and his skin turned redder and redder as they continued the slow trek back home. This was his punishment – watching Shinichi suffer for his faults.

* * *

It took both of them another week to recuperate. Generally, Kaito's heightened healing abilities meant he healed from most injuries within seconds, but having the silver in his bloodstream for over an hour had temporarily corroded his blood cells. Shinichi went through a drugstore's worth of aloe vera, wearing light t-shirts and loose pants that were meant to relieve the chafe against his burned skin but also helped Kaito go slightly insane with want, having to see Shinichi so unguarded and soft all the time.

All the time, because how could they stand to be separated now? Kaito – if Kaito had doubted anything about how he felt for Shinichi before, he couldn't, now, not when he'd witnessed Shinichi carrying him through the morning sunlight, expression set and grip tight even as his skin burned. He'd _burned_ for Kaito. It was impossible not to love him.

And Shinichi, for his part, didn't comment the first night Kaito, bandaged and bleary-eyed, curled up on the armchair opposite his and went to sleep. He just offered Kaito a cup of tea and clean clothes in the morning, and that was that.

"We need a plan," Shinichi remarked one evening over his customary glass of synthetic blood. He was dressed in a pale red cotton shirt that seemed designed to make Kaito want to lunge over the dining table and do unspeakable things to him. "We can't just run out into the woods on the full moon."

"Why not?" Kaito sighed, rubbing at his eyes. "They found me quickly enough last time." Though it hadn't happened before. "If our goal is to… incapacitate them, we can do that as long as they find us and we're prepared next time."

Shinichi's gaze was suddenly sharp on Kaito. Kaito felt pinned as a butterfly. "I don't think I can promise that I won't do something I regret, faced with them again."

Kaito stared at him. He didn't want to presume, but the curiosity was eating away at him. "You said that before, too. What did you mean by it?"

A shadow passed over Shinichi's face. "I heard you shouting for help," he said, enunciating carefully as he set his glass aside, "and you sounded so in pain that I went to find you without even bothering to put on sunblock or wear a hat or anything. When I found you, you were lying in a pool of your own blood, unable to shift back because they'd put bits of silver in you. You couldn't even move. The man responsible was standing over you and calling his friends over so they could torture you for information that you don't even have." Maybe it was just Kaito, but Shinichi's eyes seemed to have taken on an oily, faintly scarlet sheen underneath the blue. "I don't want to repeat anything from my past, no. I regret it all too much for that. But it's hard to remind myself why I don't kill when I see something like that."

And – well, Kaito didn't know what to say to that. All he could do was watch the play of emotions over the beautiful lines and contours of his face and wonder what he'd done to make someone like Shinichi care about him at all. All he could say was, "You didn't have to watch someone burn because of your own stupid mistake."

"You did nothing wrong," Shinichi snapped. His hands were suddenly balled into fists on the table. Kaito tried not to notice the way his pointed nails cut into his palms. "Snake and his hunters are the ones in the wrong. _You_ did _nothing_ wrong."

"It appears we're at an impasse, then," Kaito sniffed imperiously, and Shinichi relaxed enough to smile at him.

"It wasn't your fault, though," he added under his breath, and Kaito rolled his eyes.

In the end, they decided that the best course of action was to prioritize finding Pandora. They'd decide what to do about Snake when the full moon came.

* * *

The full moon came, and they still hadn't found Pandora.

"What are we going to do?" Kaito demanded, peering out of Shinichi's kitchen window as the sun began its steady descent lower and lower in the dusky sky. He wasn't panicking, per se, but he certainly wasn't ecstatic about what was to come. He turned to give Shinichi a hopeless look.

Shinichi, who was leaning against the kitchen counter and looking appropriately stunning and model-esque in a blue sweater (Kaito found he was a little partial to Shinichi in blue), set his jaw, expression tight. "In that case, we do what you first suggested. We go out and hope for the best." He ran a hand through his hair. "Make sure you take enough wolfsbane to keep control, but not enough to hinder your shift." Straightening, he smiled, surprisingly soft, and pivoted on one heel to leave. "With any luck, this will be the last time you ever use wolfsbane."

The smile (and the thought, but mostly the smile) made Kaito flush with pleasure. "Right," he agreed, and Shinichi gave him a last parting smile before he left noiselessly.

When Kaito had finished dosing up – the wolfsbane made his skin crawl, as it always did, but this time the burn felt promising, signifying the end of an era – he exited the mansion to find Shinichi waiting outside for him. He'd pulled on a leather jacket that broadened his shoulders and sent a flutter of something scurrying up Kaito's spine.

"You ready?" Shinichi asked, eyes burning with candlelight as he waited for Kaito's response. Once Kaito nodded his assent, they were off.

The woods were eerily quiet as the two of them traipsed through, making as much noise as they dared. To be fair, the woods were never particularly loud, but anticipating what would likely occur that night made Kaito hypersensitive to the silence. Every whisper of wind seemed to hold another danger; every rustle of leaves was Snake's hunters coming to attack them.

It was when Kaito was just about to relax, let himself enjoy the feeling of Shinichi's shoulder brushing his, when Shinichi tensed, eyes blinking red in a second. Before Kaito could ask what was wrong, Shinichi was shoving him roughly out of the way as a bullet whizzed past him, millimeters from his ear. How Kaito hadn't heard it, he would never know. (Maybe he had been distracted by the way Shinichi's biceps looked in his jacket, but he'd never admit it.)

"Well, well," called a loud, boisterous voice from somewhere behind them, and Kaito whirled as Snake melted out from between two oaks, gun slung over one shoulder with studied carelessness. At Kaito's back, Shinichi hissed a sound of warning as hunters surrounded them, all holding various weapons – a silver rifle here, a long-handled dagger there. Kaito even spotted what looked like a wolfsbane bomb hanging from one man's belt loops. His wolf growled, snapping at its restraints with fervor, and Kaito tried to ignore it. He needed to be in control tonight.

"I didn't recognize you at first," Snake drawled, and Kaito's attention swung back to him. He was smirking at Kaito with unveiled condescension. Kaito found that he only liked smirks when they came from Shinichi. "Didn't realize you were Kuroba Toichi's little son, trying to come avenge him or whatever the hell it is you think you're doing."

The sound of his father's name made rage boil in Kaito's stomach. "You killed him because you just wanted Pandora!" he shouted, voice too loud in the stillness. "You think it'll give you immortal life? You're wrong! You're going to turn into a demon!"

"Oh, that's what this one told you?" Snake flicked the barrel of his gun in Shinichi's direction. Kaito got the wild and unexpected urge to tackle him – _nobody_ was going to aim a gun at Shinichi, not if he was there to prevent it – but he managed to keep it at bay. "Sorry, kid, but that's just what they tell you if they don't want you getting power hungry. It's all bluff. Pandora gives you immortality, plain and simple. The demon shit? That's all made up." He smiled, sudden and startlingly white. "We're gonna be immortals."

"No, you're _not_ ," Shinichi rumbled, syllables guttural and hard and not crisp like his usual refined accent. There was an abrupt a blur of motion in Kaito's periphery as Shinichi swept the nearest hunters off their feet in one quick motion, so graceful it seemed like Shinichi was simply dancing.

"Goddamn vampires think they can get away with anything," Snake snarled, and pulled his gun off his shoulder to take careful aim.

Kaito was shifted within moments, springing at Snake with teeth bared and a growl breaking from his throat. He managed to bite down on Snake's forearm, clamping down until he felt bone against his teeth. Snake gave a surprised, pained shout and batted him off with his gun; the handle smacked against the base of Kaito's skull with a dull thunk that made his vision swim. Kaito skittered back a meter or two, banging into a mustached, gun-toting man who was trying to get at Shinichi.

"Are you okay?" Shinichi yelled over the din, somehow finding the time to drag a hand over Kaito's side as he dodged a hunter's uppercut and the flash of another's knife. Kaito growled an affirmative, and Shinichi gave him a sharp nod before he returned his attention to the others.

Snake, who was swearing as he clutched at his arm, glared at Kaito. "I'll kill you," he seethed, lifting his gun once again. "I'll kill you, just like I killed your father. Who cares if you're a lead to Pandora, I've gotten this far without one and I bet you're gonna try to be all heroic just like he was, beg for your life instead of just telling me where the damn jewel is –"

That was all Kaito heard before he was jumping at Snake, tackling him to the ground easily. Snake went down with a shout for help, beating at Kaito's sides with his fists and gun. For all his sneering and threatening, he was surprisingly incompetent at combat.

"Stupid beast," he shrieked as Kaito bore down on him. He frantically waved the muzzle of his gun at Kaito's hind leg, firing a shot that ruffled the furs of Kaito's flank. "I could blow your goddamn brains out, you animal, just like your bastard of a father –"

And for a moment, Kaito was sorely tempted to just – lean down and rip his jugular, cut him to ribbons without a single shred of remorse. He wanted to think that the impulse came from his wolf, that Kaito the human wasn't quite that savage, but he knew that the thought was purely his, in every sense of the word. He _wanted_ to do it. He wanted to kill Snake, kill the coward who'd murdered his father over a _jewel_ –

But then Kaito remembered Shinichi, Shinichi's eyes when he'd told Kaito about how much he'd regretted killing in the past, and – and what if Shinichi turned that loathing outwards? What if Shinichi looked at Kaito and thought there had to have been something Shinichi could've done to stop Kaito? What if he blamed himself for _Kaito_ 's mistakes? What if he punished himself for Kaito's faults?

Kaito wasn't prepared for that. Not again.

So he raked his claws down Snake's side and snapped at Snake's arm, hard enough to leave blood seeping through Snake's jacket and on Kaito's paws and maw but not hard enough to tear anything that wouldn't heal. Snake gasped in pain – and squeezed down on the trigger before his arm fell useless to his side.

This was a little ironic, Kaito had to admit. He yowled as a silver bullet burrowed into his leg for the second time in the last month, the agony that came with it now familiar. He could almost cope with it.

But what he couldn't cope with was the way Shinichi shouted, " _Kaito_!" and Kaito turned, ready to assure him that he was fine, it would be okay, probably – just in time to see the last hunter standing, blood soaking the front of his coat and smeared across the side of his stubbly cheek, reach into the back of his jeans, pull out a frightfully sharp wooden stake, and drive it into Shinichi's back.

Shinichi's expression instantly went slack, the bright red of his eyes fading out as he inhaled for the first time Kaito had ever seen. Kaito stared, frozen from where he was still standing over Snake's prone body.

"You didn't think," Snake gasped from beneath him, smiling ferociously, "that we'd come unprepared, when we knew you had a vampire on your side?"

Growling, Kaito lifted his foreleg and stomped on his wrist with as much force as he could, and Snake dissolved into a scream of pain, twitching fingers dropping the gun. Black dots were fogging Kaito's vision, eating away at the bleeding edges of his sight, and Kaito was overcome by agonizing pain every time he took a step forward, but Kaito couldn't feel any of it over the mantra of _ShinichiShinichiShinichi_ overtaking every one of his mental facilities.

"Hey, there," Shinichi managed weakly when Kaito had struggled all the way over to where he was lying awkwardly on one side. Blood stained the blue of his sweater, leaking out from where the stake was embedded in his back. "Looks like –" He coughed. Black blood splattered sickeningly onto the ground by his mouth. "Looks like this might be the end for me."

No. Kaito shook his head, trying to show just how _no_ he felt about that. That would not happen. Kaito would not let that happen.

"Darling," Shinichi muttered, and no, he was using pet names, he'd never used pet names on Kaito before, that was a bad, bad sign. "Love. You're hurt." His face was getting paler, a feat Kaito hadn't thought possible. "Sorry I can't – can't help you this time, I'm afraid. Bit – bit hurt myself, actually."

Kaito whined loudly, pawing at Shinichi's shoulder frantically.

"Hey," Shinichi murmured. His eyes weren't azure. They were gray. "Hey, it's okay. Look for Pandora, okay?" His eyelids drooped. "I used to not mind the thought of dying, you know. Always thought it'd be my punishment for everything I've done. But right now – right now, I have to admit, I'm a little scared. Don't want to leave you."

 _Then don't_ , Kaito shouted at him mentally. _Don't leave_. He tried to convey that with a growl, but all that came out was the tiniest of whimpers.

"Y'know," and Shinichi was slurring; Kaito had never heard him slur, ever. "Y'know, I – I loved you, I think. Love you. Never happened before. Never thought it would, since I'm a monster, but I think it did, with you." He grinned, dopily and faintly. "You're something else, Kaito."

And that was it for Kaito. He wasn't going to sit there, he had to _do_ something, he had to shift back – he tried, but the bullet –

Howling with frustration, Kaito twisted, contorted, and clawed at the bullet in his leg. He took out a chunk of flesh with it, splattering blood over the leg of Shinichi's jeans, but it was out and he changed back, clutching at Shinichi with red hands. His leg still stung, but he was much more concerned with the amount of blood dripping from Shinichi's wound. The forest floor was black with it.

"You're back." Shinichi beamed muzzily up at him. His eyelashes were so long they nearly brushed his cheeks. "Missed you. I'll miss you."

"We're not doing that. No. _No_ ," Kaito hissed, and Shinichi shook his head at him.

"It's gonna be all right," he whispered, reaching for Kaito's hand. His palms were bloody, but his claws had retracted and his fingers were brittle and breakable as they curled around Kaito's. "Don't worry. All right?" His eyes slid shut, and.

And. No.

For most of his life, Kaito had been told, by his mother and by Aoko and by Hakuba and by his high school teachers, that he was obstinate. That he was willful and pigheaded and never gave up. Relentless. Persistent. Usually they meant it in a bad way – for example, when Kaito refused to join a new pack or get a job with a were agency or listen to Aoko's demands that he come live with her and Hakuba.

Kaito had never been more thankful for his own stubbornness than he was now.

Shinichi would tell him later that he kept repeating, "No. No. No," over and over again. Kaito would reply that he didn't remember what he had been saying; all he remembered was yanking the stake out of Shinichi's back, hating desperately how Shinichi didn't even react to the slick, steady slide that definitely should've hurt, slitting open the inside of his own forearm, and holding it to Shinichi's lips, bracing Shinichi's mouth open with one hand until he drank. He didn't know how long he held his arm there, how much blood he gave, how much time passed until Shinichi coughed and pulled his mouth away, blinking up at Kaito with eyes restored to their former azure and mouth red with blood.

Kaito was lightheaded and dizzy and his leg was aching, sending starbursts of pain scattering through his consciousness, but all he could do was smile breathlessly when Shinichi looked at him, the shadow of a smirk on his gorgeous, gorgeous face, and mumbled, "Your blood tastes disgusting. Like charcoal."

"So you've said," Kaito managed, blinking away tears. "So you've said, Shinichi." And then he leaned down and kissed Shinichi hard, kissing him until he didn't taste blood or salt or death and all he knew was the feel of Shinichi in his arms and the sweetness of Shinichi's mouth.

And they went home.

* * *

– **epilogue** –

"You know, we never did find Pandora," Shinichi remarked as he leaned against the door to Kaito's quickly emptying closet. "Think that's a problem?"

From where he was trying to sort his belongings into the four gargantuan cardboard boxes (marked _clothes, kitchen, bathroom, random stuff_ ) Shinichi had supplied him with, Kaito shrugged and tucked a navy sweatshirt into the "clothes" box. It didn't fit him, but maybe Shinichi could wear it. "I think it'd be better to just leave it unfound, don't you think? Seeing as even we couldn't find it with all our resources and Snake couldn't find when he'd been searching for it for so long, it's probably safe to assume that nobody will be able to. And anyway, nobody's tried since Snake, and he's not a threat, seeing as he's been put away for illegal weapons trafficking and all." He smiled faintly, remembering the trial. Snake wouldn't be out of prison for a long, long time.

Shinichi smirked at him. Yes, his smirk – teeth and all – was the only one Kaito would ever like. "What did I do to get such a smart man?" he grinned, crossing the room to crowd Kaito up against the framed floor-to-ceiling mirror Kaito had always had mounted in his room. "And one who even wants to move in with me. I must've done something right sometime in my life." The playfulness of his tone belied the meaningfulness of the statement, the implication that Shinichi was forgiving himself. Something warm flooded Kaito's chest.

"You really must've," Kaito smiled back at him, leaning against the mirror so he had more room to watch the way Shinichi's eyes went soft and warm as he braced his arms on the mirror and leaned in to kiss him –

– only for the mirror to _turn_ (what?!)and deposit the two of them unceremoniously onto the floor of a dark, cramped room.

Once Kaito had caught his breath, he knocked on Shinichi's chest until Shinichi rolled off of him. He got to his feet, dusting off his pants. "What – where is this? Nobody ever told me about this place."

"Secret room?" Shinichi suggested from somewhere to Kaito's right.

"Must be," Kaito remarked, groping along the wall for a light switch and, finding one, flipping it on.

They were in a small, boxy room. There was a thick layer of dust coating the unvarnished floor, making Kaito's nose twitch a little. A pair of sad-looking brass lamps stood sentry by the rotating door they'd come through, one on each side of the unfinished doorframe, and the walls were painted an off white, maybe eggshell. Everything smelled of must and disuse and a little bit of mildew.

But most importantly, there was a nondescript little table sitting in the middle of the room, looking entirely like an innocent piece of furniture save for the large, gleaming sapphire sitting in the center of it.

Kaito exchanged a look with Shinichi.

"Well," Shinichi said eloquently, "shit."

* * *

 **If you made it all the way through, congratulations!**

 **Hope you enjoyed this even a little (if you did, please consider dropping me a review!) and I'll be back soon with my usual sappy fluff. - Luna**


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